Present understanding of superintense laser-solid interaction

In superintense laser-dense matter interaction two phases are to be disting uished: the plasma formation process and collisional heating in a first sta ge of interaction and then the collective phase of absorption and dynamics. Plasma formation starts with field ionization. Here much progress on one- and two-electron systems has been made in the past. Now the problem of mult ielectron dynamics in superstrong laser fields is the most challenging subj ect. Collective, i.e., collisionless absorption dominates as soon as the pl asma has reached tens of keV temperature. Until now no simple physical mode l for this kind of interaction is available. In this article the authors tr y to make its principle clear and present new results on how absorption can be increased and how the transport of energy into the target interior evol ves through the formation of spontaneously self-generated structures.